Shakia Vanderbilt has been charged with murder in the shooting death of Ulysses “Bear” Davis, a security guard who was killed outside San Francisco’s Warfield Theatre early Saturday morning after a Zeus Network Baddies USA Chapter 3 event.
San Francisco police arrested Vanderbilt on Tuesday, and District Attorney Brooke Jenkins announced the charges at a press conference outside the Warfield on Wednesday. Shakia Vanderbilt faces murder with an enhancement for personally using a firearm, intentionally discharging a firearm in an occupied building, and being a felon in possession of a firearm. That last charge means prosecutors say she already has a felony conviction on her record, which makes it illegal for her to have a gun at all. Jail booking logs list her age as 32, though some outlets initially reported it as 42. She was scheduled to be arraigned Thursday at 1:30 p.m. at the Hall of Justice, and prosecutors say they will ask the judge to keep her locked up without bail while the case moves forward.
The night started as a celebration. Friday, October 2, was Zeus Network’s first Baddies USA Chapter Three concert, an 18 and over show at the Warfield that doubled as a live shoot for the series. Natalie Nunn, Rollie, Tommie Lee, Biggie, Big Lex, Badd Dolly and Scotty With The Body were among the cast members billed to take the stage. A livestream of the concert appears to show people fighting on stage at one point, with Nunn calling for security and telling the crowd, “We not having fights on stage.”
Things fell apart as the event wrapped. The show ended around midnight, and Warfield bartenders told Mission Local that someone sprayed a chemical irritant inside the theater around 12:45 a.m. Staff believed it was bear mace. One bartender said his eyes started burning and his nose began to itch, and panicked attendees rushed toward the exits. Authorities have not said who sprayed it. Some outlets have raised the possibility that it was Vanderbilt, but police and prosecutors have not confirmed that. About 20 minutes after the spray, Warfield staffers were warning each other about gunfire in their work Slack.
According to Police Chief Derrick Lew, Vanderbilt was escorted out of the Warfield after a disruption inside, and a dispute followed that ended with the shooting around 1 a.m. on the 900 block of Market Street, near Market and Taylor. Davis’ brother in law, Terrance Cooper, told KTVU that Davis was walking a rowdy woman out of the theater when she allegedly pulled a gun and shot him in the back. Davis’ wife, one of his daughters and one of his sons were there and saw it happen. “They saw him take his last breaths right there in that hallway,” Cooper told Mission Local, adding that the moment is something his relatives will relive over and over.
Officers gave Davis lifesaving aid until paramedics arrived, and video posted on social media shows bystanders stepping in to help as responders moved him to an ambulance. He died at the hospital. Vanderbilt ran from the scene before police arrived. Another video circulating online shows a woman being handcuffed outside the venue that night, but police have not confirmed whether she had any connection to the shooting.
Investigators still have a lot of questions to answer. Lew would not say whether Davis was specifically targeted, and Jenkins said that is something detectives are still working to figure out. Both said video of the shooting exists. When reporters asked whether Vanderbilt carried the gun into the Warfield, Jenkins said it appears that may have been the case, which would mean a firearm got past the venue’s security screening. Jenkins described the scene that night as chaotic and said that was not out of character for the event, and she said no one going to see a show should have to worry that someone inside is armed. San Francisco police spokesman Officer Robert Rueca said investigators are also checking whether the Warfield had the proper permits to host the event and whether it was following the rules those permits set.
City leaders are already responding. Jenkins said her office and city officials plan to work with the Warfield and other entertainment venues on security procedures and police presence. Lew said SFPD had started adding officers in the Mid Market area before the shooting and will keep up daytime foot patrols and outreach to businesses, residents and venues.
Zeus Network CEO Lemuel Plummer did not respond to requests for comment from SFGATE or KTVU, and the Warfield did not respond to KTVU either. As of Wednesday, neither the network nor Nunn had spoken publicly about Davis’ death.
For anyone unfamiliar, Baddies is a Zeus Network reality franchise created by and starring Oakland native Natalie Nunn, who first became famous on Oxygen’s Bad Girls Club, which ran from 2006 to 2017. Baddies launched in 2021 with Baddies ATL and has since become one of the network’s biggest shows, built around cast members traveling city to city and the arguments and physical fights that break out between them. Chapter 3 is the tenth season of the franchise.
This is not the first time Vanderbilt’s name has come up in a case involving a security worker. Authorities have linked her to the “Rainbow Crew,” a shoplifting ring accused of stealing more than $1 million in merchandise across California in the 2010s and known for brazen hits on high end Union Square stores. In 2014, she and a man named Marcells Eubanks were arrested after a robbery at a T.J. Maxx in Daly City’s Westlake Shopping Center, where police said a loss prevention officer was stabbed in the hand while trying to stop them outside the store. In 2017, she was one of four people arrested after an hourlong car chase through Ventura and Santa Barbara counties. It is not clear what she was ultimately charged with in those earlier cases or how they were resolved.
Davis, whose full name was Ulysses Tykee Davis, was 47 and lived in Contra Costa County. He grew up in San Francisco’s Bayview Hunters Point neighborhood, raised six children and had three grandchildren. The two adult children who were at the Warfield that night are the parents of two of those grandkids. Just days before he was killed, Davis snapped a selfie in the Warfield lobby wearing a black cap, the same photo now circulating online alongside news of his death. His family has also shared photos of him standing beside one of his sons on prom night and at that son’s 2025 high school graduation.
Coworkers at the Warfield said Bear was well liked, and messages mourning him spread through the staff Slack the day after the shooting. Cooper told KTVU that Davis “would give you the shirt off his back” and was always there when someone called on him. Davis and his sister were best friends who talked every day, and she told Mission Local she wants whoever did this to never walk free again. Cooper said the family is grateful police made an arrest, but the loss still does not feel real. He said he called Davis the day before he spoke to reporters, out of habit, before remembering his brother in law was gone.
Shakia Vanderbilt remains in custody as prosecutors push to keep her behind bars until trial.
